So the monsoon has arrived in Delhi—and the rest of the country—somewhat ahead of schedule. Which means that summer is over, and we’re now into the rainy season. The cooler weather is obviously a huge relief to everyone… It’s hard to believe that only 3 weeks ago it was 45 degrees, but as I write this it’s currently 25. Last night was the first night in 2-3 months when I didn’t have to have the air conditioning on all […]
At the risk of being repetitive, I’m going to bang on about the weather again. Because it’s now very, very hot. Today it was 45 degrees celsius when I took the photo above, and reportedly it reached 46 in Delhi at some point. Slightly trumping the previous hottest temperature I had ever experienced, which was 44 in Athens (Greece) and Brindisi (Italy) when back-packing around Europe in the late 80’s. My memory of Athens was that elderly people were dropping […]
I’ve been living in Delhi for 3 months now, and everything seems to have become “normal” quite quickly, at least compared with when I first arrived in India over 2 years ago. Some things have normalised remarkably fast; some of them less so. An example of the former would be the daily commute to and from work on the metro, which has changed from: being an empowering novelty—Independence! Efficient, clean, reliable public transport at last! (Are you listening, […]
Right then, here comes the Summer. The ultimate test. Maybe. When I arrived in Delhi in January 2013 it was surprisingly cold. Even for seasoned Dilliwalas it was something to talk about… supposedly the coldest winter for 40 years. As the Times of India commented back in January: For nine straight days since December 31, the capital hasn’t seen temperatures rise above 16 degrees Celsius and the minimum has remained below 6 degrees. Taking these two temperature limits as cutoff, […]
Today was Holi, the Hindu “festival of colours”. Given that I’d already been targetted by local kids with water-bombs and supersoakers last night, I decided to stay home, relax and enjoy my day off. Maybe do some studying. In the end it was way too noisy. Starting from very early. Which was unexpected, as I live in a really peaceful neighbourhood. So this put me in a pretty weird mood for the rest of the day. (Or maybe I […]
A week ago I was bitten by a street dog, right outside my flat. I was walking to the shops about 8pm, along a badly-lit road, and it jumped out from behind a parked car, snarling, and bit me on the ankle. I was more surprised than anything else. It’s a dog that I see every day—street dogs are everywhere in my neighbourhood—and I didn’t even know it was there until it had nipped me. I checked out the […]
Around 5pm, on a busy main road in Naraina. A small, wiry woman–a daily wage labourer–walks briskly along the road after work with her three children. All of them are animated and chatting over the noise of the traffic. It’s clear that she’s a daily wage labourer because as she walks she has a full-size pickaxe perfectly balanced on her head, hands-free, and with the handle pointing directly forwards.
Delhi, February. About 7.30am, and I’m just heading out the door to go to work. I hear the hoot of a train from the nearby track. Only it sounds different: three rising tones rather than two. Or the more common long, single, plaintive note. I think to myself how it sounded like a trombone. I carry on walking past the park and hear it again. Odd. As I turn the corner, in front of me is a man in […]
